Strafford County's jobless rates vary widely

Thursday

Sep 29, 2011 at 3:15 AM

By John Nolanjnolanfosters.com

ROCHESTER — New Hampshire's U-3 unadjusted unemployment rate — the one that doesn't count "discouraged" workers or adjust for part-time workers who want to work full-time — was 5.2 percent in August. The U-6 rate, which includes estimates of both of the aforementioned categories, will be issued in a few weeks, and this has typically been running at twice the official U-3 rate — something to keep in mind, when absorbing the figures below.

According to New Hampshire Employment Security, the unadjusted August rate is slightly better than July's 5.3 percent as well as an improvement on August 2010's jobless rate of 5.7 percent.

Looking at the national picture, New Hampshire had the fourth lowest jobless rate in the country, with only North Dakota (3.3), Nebraska (4.1), and South Dakota (4.7) doing better. There are 11 states with double digit unadjusted unemployment rates, while the August rate for the United States was 9.1 percent.

In New England, Rhode Island posted an August jobless rate of 10.2 percent, with Connecticut at 9 .0, Massachusetts at 7.0, Maine (helped by tourism) at 6.5 and Vermont at 5.4 percent.

Counties, cities and towns

In August, Strafford County posted an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent, Belknap County stood at 4.9 percent, Carroll County was at 4.2 percent, and Rockingham County's rate was 5.4. percent.

Fortunes varied widely within Strafford County, with the highest rates located in the north — Farmington climbed to 7.1 percent in August — while Madbury's jobless rate was only 3.0 percent.

The New Hampshire communities in “The Rochester Times” and “Foster's Sunday Citizen”readership areas posted August unemployment rates as follows: